


The Incident at Ward 23

by rx_rx



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Slavery, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Non-Sexual Slavery, Other, Post-War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-12 09:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9066094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rx_rx/pseuds/rx_rx
Summary: Short story. Raleigh and his 4-year-old master, Maia are stuck in a hospital following the aftermath of an accident.





	1. Chapter 1

They passed a vending machine in the hall. 

“Want a hot chocolate?” Raleigh asked.

Maia buried her precious dog into her lap and leaned a little closer, seeming to hesitate whether or not to scoot closer to him on the bench. Raleigh eyed the four-year-old girl sitting next to him. Her hair was short, strewn over her face and haphazardly cut with a pair of scissors Serah must have used.

Raleigh hated hospitals. His entire life, he had been in and out of them, but he could never got used to any of it. Not the cold, dim fluorescent lighting that reflected against the lifeless walls or the sterility of it all. He tugged the collar of his jacket, concealing a conspicuous, copper implant protruding between the vertebrae in his neck. Engraved on the implant was an identification registration number indicating that he belonged to Maia.

“Are you cold?” Maia asked him. She curled her knees into her chest, digging her sneakers into the cracks between the bench slabs. A stuffed, white dog was smothered under her arms, clutched close to her faded yellow windbreaker. Its ears sagged over its head. The cotton fur was matted with dirt and sweat from being stroked. As she rubbed her dog’s ears between her fingers, she watched a set of double doors shut at the opposite end of the hall.

“No,” he told her, which wasn’t entirely true. “Why, are you?”

“Little.”

Raleigh debated putting his arm over her shoulder, drawing her into him. However, his instinct to comfort her was overtaken by reason. He stopped himself.

His eyes drifted back to the styrofoam cup clutched between his hands, filled with water he had poured from the hospital’s water cooler near nearly an hour ago. It could have been the poorly maintained fluorescent lights, or maybe it was the sterile stench of ammonia and mouthwash that permeated the hallways as if the walls, ceiling, and tiled floors. The air was saturated with the stench. It was intoxicating and the smell sent Raleigh’s head reeling.

“Hot chocolate,” Raleigh insisted, offering to get her some if it allowed him to walk away for a few moments alone. He spoke with his eyes shut. He rocked forward, swaying to his stand. “Let me get you a cup. It’ll warm you right up.”

Raleigh retrieved the bottle of prescription painkillers buried deep inside his pocket. He emptied a few pills into his palm. The water was stale and left an aftertaste of plastic in his mouth. He shook the remaining pills back into the bottle and once certain the pills were staying down on his empty stomach, he left Maia behind on the bench.

Raleigh crossed the hall. His head felt thick as if his mind was lagging behind his choice to rise to his feet. His steps were off balance.  
When he looked behind him, he saw Maia watching as if terrified he would never return. Raleigh waved, motioning that he would not be gone long.

“Ma’am?”

Raleigh froze, perturbed to see a doctor suddenly addressing Maia. The woman knelt next to the girl, pinching the sleeves of her white coat as if she had an itch. She tapped her nails against the clipboard, flipping through some papers.

Raleigh could not hear what was being said, but it was the seriousness in the doctor’s posture that caused him to return as fast as he did.

The doctor jotted quick strokes into unseen files. She tipped the clipboard away from Raleigh when he approached. “You brought him with you?” the doctor asked Maia, directing a half-hearted look at Raleigh. She stopped writing and tilted the pen in his direction.

Raleigh darted his eyes toward Maia, who appeared thoroughly distraught.

“Yes.”

The doctor looked down at her clipboard and scribbled down something. Her eyes lifted from her clipboard. “Is there someone we should call?” she asked.

“No.”

It had taken years of practice for Raleigh not to speak without being directly addressed. He wasn’t about to break social norms now. Impatiently, his fingers twitched resisting the urge to reach for his painkillers.

The doctor leaned forward, frowning. “Ma’am, are you alright?”

Maia clutched her stuffed, white dog against her chest, smothering its face into her yellow windbreaker. The windbreaker had a washed-out color to it reminding Raleigh of wilting buttercups or jaundice.

“Maia,” he said with a smile on his face and it surprised him how naturally that smile came. “Answer the doctor.”

“Excuse you.” The doctor’s voice was soft but Raleigh could clearly see the tight line of her jaw that there was a serious concern with him entered this conversation. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave—“

“No!” Maia screeched, scrambling off the bench. She positioned herself in front of Raleigh, leveling her elbows as far as she could, clutching her dog firmly against her chest. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground. If someone were to push her, she may have even done a decent job at holding her own ground.

Without hesitation, the doctor grabbed the nearest phone. There was one hanging to the right of the bench where he and Maia had once been sitting. “This is the doctor stationed at Ward 23. We have a bondsman on premise,” she said. The curtness and disgust were not veiled from her voice. “Repeat, we have a bondsman on premise—”

“—where’s mama!” Maia demanded. Dread pooled into the pit of Raleigh’s stomach. “We came to see mama. Where is she? Raleigh, _**bring her back**_.”

Raleigh’s throat clenched at the request. The spinal implants in his neck and spine forced him to immediately kneel next to her, meeting her at eye level. The stress from the implants started to make him nauseous. He raised his gaze to the doctor. The doctor, phone clamped against her cheek, mouthpiece pressed against her jawbone, seemed horrified as if she took a single step back from them.


	2. Chapter 2

“He’s not registered to be here on this floor,” the doctor articulated into the phone, thoroughly annoyed to have been taken by surprise by Raleigh’s presence. 

“Maia,” Raleigh whispered. He was powerless not to obey her commands. Head down, hands folded, he looked her in the eye, silently pleading that she would not do anything he would regret. “She is in the ICU. We had to bring her here when she had the seizure. Remember the accident two years ago? It made her head sick. If I bring her back, she cannot get better. She has to stay in the ICU to get better. You understand—“

“No!” Maia ordered. Raleigh choked on his last sentence. The muscles in his throat clenched.

“Ma’am,” the doctor tentatively approached Maia, clipboard braced between both hands. “If it’s required that he stays with you, we will have to check his identification registration. This hospital does not permit bondsmen to be present here without formal documentation.”

“Raleigh,” Maia called his name — a one-word command.

Obediently, Raleigh tugged the collar of his jacket, revealing a copper implant in the back of his neck. Engraved on the copper surface was IR-49285. That was his identification registration number. He bowed his neck until his forehead touched the ground so the doctor could clearly read it.

The doctor’s pen scratched and dotted over her clipboard. She rushed back to the phone to confirm it.

For the brief moment, Raleigh stole a few seconds to tell Maia while they were still alone. “Be careful with your words, Maia.”

Maia cradled her stuffed dog desperately against her chest, avoiding eye contact with him. When the doctor returned, she did not waste anyone's time.

“Where’s mama?” Maia demanded.

“Ma’am,” the doctor spoke to her patiently. “If you come with me, I can take you to see her.”

Maia bounded towards the set of double doors, following the doctor. It was through those doors that she had last seen Serah be taken.

Suddenly, Maia stopped. Her feet froze. “Raleigh!” she commanded.

And Raleigh came.

“Ma’am,” the doctor interrupted. “Until we can verify his registration, this man will have to be escorted by security. They are on their way.”

Raleigh said, “We can wait.”

The doctor did not acknowledge him.

Maia did.

“We can wait,” she agreed.

Before long, an armed guard was standing to his left. He was armed. Raleigh had been in enough hospitals to know this was not normal procedure. He was not a criminal. One thing led to another and the next thing he knew, he had been sold to an insurance company and this became the only life he knew.

#

Raleigh couldn't remember his life before this one or even his real name. After a series of invasive medical procedures that had leeched his memories and left him a slave to the copper implants embedded into his brain and nervous system, he remembered nothing more than his previous owners. Serah and Maia were his third and fourth.

Serah Goldwater had been one of the engineers trapped inside the refinery when it happened. A traumatic brain injury left her unable to care for herself or her daughter, Maia after the accident at the Staver Geothermal Refinery. Serah was a shell of her former self. She spoke with a slur and thought through simple problems slowly. Her inability to remember new things or concentrate on immediate tasks often left her frustrated.

That was when Raleigh was provided to her by her insurance company after it was determined she was physically unfit to care for herself or her four-year-old daughter.

Consequently, he belonged to Maia as well. Considering the circumstances, it wasn’t the worse thing that could have happened to Raleigh. He couldn’t been assigned to serve a mentally unfit psychopath. There was always a worse option in life that could be dealt at anytime. 

The security guard prevented Raleigh from following Maia and the doctor into a separate room. Raleigh did not question why until the door slammed in his face. Maia was on the other side, out of sight.

Raleigh did not like that.

“I should be with her.”

“Only family is permitted.”

Raleigh couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that. Above all else, he was taught to never speak when not spoken to unless it was to protect his owners. He was required to show respect at all times to all — including idiotic guards like this one.

Then suddenly, the silence strained between them was sliced by a scream. Before the guard could stop him, Raleigh threw open the door.

Serah was having another tonic clonic seizure. Her eyes had rolled back into her head, and she was choking on bile and spit, sputtering past her lips. The conversations were violent; the bed clattered and shivered. The medical staff around her did their best to restrain Serah from unintentionally hurting herself.

“Mama!” Maia called. At the sound of her panic-stricken screams, Raleigh went to her. He wanted to Maia out of here. While a team of medical staff tended to Serah, Raleigh scooped Maia into his arms, realizing too late what a bad idea that actually was. The moment he was within earshot, Maia screamed into his ears, “Raleigh, stop! Stop!”

Raleigh stifled a rough cry as a wave of agony slammed through his skull. Usually, he could anticipate what Maia was going to have him do or say. It was the unexpected orders that caused headaches so severe, it brought hot tears to his lashes.

“Maia,” he whispered into his ears, now doubled over on his knees, silently begging her not to do that again. He shook his head. “A little warning next time.”

_“Who are they—?”_

_“—is that a bondsman? Get him out of here!”_

_“—guard!”_

“Ma’am, you shouldn’t be here….“ the first doctor tried to coax Maia out of Raleigh’s arms and into her own.

“I said, ‘get him out of here!’”

With Maia in his arm, she pointed to her stuffed dog lying belly side up on the cold, linoleum floors. In the commotion, she had dropped it. Raleigh snatched it off the ground a split second after the guard accompanying him dragged him upright to his feet.

“You’re coming with me,” the guard ordered Raleigh, yanking the collar of his shirt from behind like a dog. Raleigh gagged and fell to the ground, dropping Maia completely.


	3. Chapter 3

The four-year-old girl hit the ground, but Maia scrambled back to her feet. She glared at them all, licking her lips as she clutched her dog now tucked securely around her arms. “Stop it!” she screamed. “Raleigh! _**Kill him!**_ ”

The guard dropped him. Raleigh pummeled. He laid himself against the floor, sweat-drenched fingers splayed across the tiles, willing himself not to move. He had heard of bondsmen being forced against their will to commit terrible acts. 

The medical staff were too busy in another world — one that revolved around Serah — except one. It was the same doctor who had attempted to remove Maia from Raleigh’s arms moments ago. She took a step back.

The guard’s hand hovered over his holster.

But nothing happened. Raleigh was not compelled to do anything. There was a metallic ringing inside his head, but that was nothing new. The longer he listened to the ringing, the worse his headache began to grow.

Raleigh rose to his feet. When he saw Maia, she was shaking on the floor. This four-year-old girl had the power to do terrible things to him — had the power to make him do terrible things.

This wasn’t one of them.

“Come here,” he said, scooping Maia into his arms.

“I’m sorry,” Maia wailed into his shoulder.

“You didn't mean it,” Raleigh told her. "I know.”

No one stopped them from leaving together. It wasn’t until after the moments Serah woke when everything changed.

#

“Maia,” Serah murmured, as if not knowing if her daughter was there. Raleigh doubted if Serah was cognizant to fully understand what she was saying. “Maia?”

Raleigh tore his eyes away from the little girl in his arms, watching only Serah. There was a frequency in the air that sizzled like the copper implants lining his brain and spine would crack and pop when there was only silence around him.

 _“Beebe…beeba…maaai,”_ Serah babbled. Eventually, she settled on silence though he lips didn’t stop moving. Her lips mouthed several, different words, but nothing she said made sense after that. 

“Maia?” she finally called out again, more clearly than last time. Raleigh set the little girl on the ground. Instantly, Maia dashed towards her mother.

A doctor, who was inspecting Serah for injuries, reluctantly allowed Maia to approach but for as young as she was, Maia seemed to know better than to get too near to her.

Raleigh shifted his gaze to the left. The remaining medical staff and guard continued to keep a steadfast eye on him. They watched him with undisguised superiority and loathing, paying no attention to the one patient in this same room who may require it.

Further left was a window. The sun was in the air but was quickly descending. Another hour, then it would be dark.

A nurse spoke to him.

“You look familiar.”

It took a moment for Raleigh to realize that the nurse talking to him, so he continued to gaze out the window, mind adrift.

“Hey,” the nurse barked, frustrated by the lack of response. Somehow the misconception lingered that someone like him could answer to anyone. No one could rename his choices except for Maia and Serah. 

Deliberately, Raleigh faced the nurse.

“Niet, your not him. Do remind me of him, zough. Huh. It vas boy who vould have been ‘round your age now. I vas zere when he got fitted vit all zose fancy neural transplants. It vould have been three years back when I vas intern at Standard Cross,” the nurse explained to him as if this was a narrative that Raleigh actually needed to hear. Raleigh restrained himself from rolling his eyes.

“I’m sure he went on to live a long, happy life,” Raleigh replied.

No one laughed except the nurse who still insisted on talking. “It kauses extreme trauma to prefrontal kortex, but zere are some dokumented kases of individuals who still retain zeir memories. It’s very invasive procedure—”

“—this topic of conversation is not appropriate,” reprimanded the doctor still tending to Serah.

“Da,” the nurse replied, drawing his attention back onto Raleigh. “At least tell me zis, bondsman. What do you remember?”

Raleigh shook his head. There was nothing about his life that Raleigh could recollect before this one. He suspected he must have wronged someone he shouldn’t have, or maybe he agreed to a stupid wager and lost. Maybe he killed someone.

In the end, it didn’t matter how it happened. All he knew was that a bondsman most likely committed some terrible crime but had been granted a second chance.

Maybe this was his.


End file.
